


Unveiled

by grandcrack3r (spasticVocalist)



Series: Demonic Humanity [1]
Category: Gravity Falls, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Tagging shit as it appears, besides the billdip, bill has to make it as a human for a year, bill n dip make a deal slash bet, cause like with me thats a given but i gotta keep some surprises for u guys, the title is a pun because i am horrible trash, without forming any attachments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-25 07:05:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6185293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spasticVocalist/pseuds/grandcrack3r
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The two with the voice of the Bald one become one,</i>
  <br/>
  <i>And the child, now a man, makes a deal with the demon.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>They'll discover a plan that fills them with unease,</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Which will form a pact between old enemies.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Working together they'll decipher the lies.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Yet once they unearth the who, what, and why,</i>
  <br/>
  <i>They'll change their directive to help the man who is lost,</i>
  <br/>
  <i>And along the way their deal will get tossed. </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>  <s>So, here's a shitty little prophecy-esque poem that I'm using to substitute a summary since I'm complete shit at those. </s></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrivals and Visits From Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> So! If any of you have read my sort-of-one-shot, Rooftop Philosopher, you probably remember an au that I mentioned that may not be in the works. This may or may not be that au. But, since I'm fucking trash, I wanted the thing to have a deeper plot, and I had another little inkling of an au in the works that required Bill to become human (and I have this thing about not re-using any method of making Bill human that I've seen, read, or otherwise written myself), this little fucker was born! Now, if you're part of it, you should very easily be able to figure out which other fandom I'm crossing over into this! Also, if you're part of the aforementioned fandom, enjoy the feels the first little bit of this chapter will give you, and I'll enjoy your screams and agony at the end of the flashback! As for the rest of u nerds, enjoy!

**[Almost seventeen years ago...]**

 

A man walked down the sidewalk, holding himself awkwardly, as though he was trying too hard to seem confident and inconspicuous. He wore a white button-up shirt, though his tie, trousers, shoes, hair, and eyes were all black. Everything about him was neat and tidy. His clothes were clean and pressed, and his short hair was styled perfectly to the side. If you ignored the nervous shifting of his eyes and the stiffness of his gait, he was the very picture of trustworthiness and normality. 

The people around him payed him little mind, obliviously going about their daily lives, happily ignorant of any oddities in the area, as usual. 

Not that this particular man would know that; he was... new to town, and to him every gaze sent his way was cold and calculating, just waiting to call him out. 

His stomach growled, startling him. He glanced around nervously, searching for a food establishment. He spotted one – or at least he _assumed_ it was one – just up ahead. The building was made to look like it was made from a giant, hollowed-out log as though an ancient tree had fallen and someone decided it would be a great idea to sell food out of part of it. A sign labeled the small restaurant as "Greasy's Diner", and it didn't seem too crowded. 

He approached it at a forced leisurely pace, sliding his hands into his pants pockets. As he stepped onto the first step leading up to the door of the diner, a worried thought prodded at his mind: was the currency here the same as his old town's? If not how would he pay for his food? Actually, now that he thought about it, he could have sworn that he'd been told that his town was... _special_ , and that while it accepted the national currency, it had its own form of payment that no other place (besides that ~~good for nothing~~ neighboring town) had even heard of. 

But his concerns were unfounded, because as soon as he walked through the door of the establishment, he spotted a sign that boasted about a week of free food to celebrate the owner of the diner winning some type of competition. Or maybe it was the lottery? Whatever it was, the man did't get a chance to read that part as a woman had approached him. 

"Howdy, stranger! Don't believe I've seen your face around here!" She exclaimed in a nasally voice. 

The man assumed she was an employee since she wore an apron over her skirt and a name tag on her blouse that read: Lazy Susan. One of her eyes was closed (perhaps that was what her moniker was derived from?), and her gray hair was teased on top and reached just past her shoulder blades. 

Smiling politely, the man responded, "No ma'am. I'm new to town." His voice was deep and naturally soothing. 

"Thought so! I'd remember seein' a face as pretty as yours!" Lazy Susan quipped. Lifting her lame eyelid and pulling it back down, she said, "Wink!"

The man laughed uncomfortably, and then Lazy Susan led him to a table. Handing him a menu, she asked, "So, stranger, got a name?"

The man froze. "Uh," he intoned eloquently. Something told him he shouldn't reveal his real name. Besides, new town, new look, might as wall have a new name to complete the new identity. "Well, Ms. Susan, it's..." He began, vying for time. 

A memory presented itself to him then:

_A flash of perfect hair, perfect caramel skin, and a perfect smile. A soft voice asking, "You're a tad strange, aren't you?"_

"Tad." He smiled at the waitress, feeling a pang of sadness, longing, and regret in his heart but not letting it show. "Tad Strange."

 

-»^«-

 

**[Present day.]**

 

Dipper Pines was nothing akin to normal. 

At the age of twenty three, he still read books about myths and magical creatures and worked part-time in a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack (which housed numerous exhibits of beings and objects of "magical" origin that were all obviously fake), that his Great Uncle Stanley used to own but had passed on to his former employee, Soos. Dipper was extremely smart and thus he also occasionally worked with Stanford Pines, his other great-uncle and Stanley's twin, doing top-secret scientific research. 

That was all he let on about himself for out-of-towners, but as was now common knowledge amongst the citizens of Gravity Falls, Oregon, there was a bit more to him than met the eye. 

Monsters, faeries, magic – all of it was real, and Dipper did his best to keep the peace between the magical creatures and the human inhabitants of the town while learning all he could about the supernatural world. 

His twin sister, Mabel, could more easily pass off as normal, though. She worked for a fashion label, and she might not have been one of the top designers, but her designs were becoming more popular, so she undoubtedly would be, soon enough. She was bubbly, friendly, and out-going, charming all who met her. While she did have a bit of an odd sense of humor and use near-excessive amounts of glitter, she had calmed down since her childhood; high school and college had changed her, as they tend to do to people. She had come out of the experience more graceful and serious than she had been, yet it hadn't been able to quell her bright and colorful personality – her brother had tried his best to make sure of that. 

Dipper was perhaps a bit overprotective of Mabel, which was why when her door (which was usually open) was closed, he decided to check on her. 

(Living in a place where magic was prominent made for situations where the usual obstacles that kept people away weren't effective and could easily make an already anxious guy even more paranoid.)

He knocked softly on her door, calling out, "Mabel?"

When there was no reply, he tried the doorknob, finding it unlocked. Immediately pushing inward, he was greeted with a sight that chilled him to the core. 

A grayscale version of his sister's usually colorful room was laid out before him, and a familiar figure floated in the middle of it all. 

Bill Cipher, in all of his triangular, yellow infamy, hovered before him. He looked exactly as Dipper remembered; black floating top hat, bow-tie, and noodle appendages, yellow 2D, geometric body with a brick pattern at the bottom, and a single, slitted eye just under his top angle. The dream demon's electric blue magic encompassed Mabel and held her at least three feet above the floor; nearly choking her, if the way her hands gripped at some invisible force around her neck was anything to go by. 

Cipher looked unsurprised to see the man in the doorway. In fact, he looked almost pleased – his eye squinted in mimicry of a smile that he could not make. With the snap of his little black fingers, blue flames pushed the human inside the room and closed the door behind him. 

"Well, if it isn't my _favorite_ Pine Tree!" Bill exclaimed jovially. 

"Cipher," Dipper growled as a familiar hatred grew within him. 

The demon ignored him, continuing, "Shooting Star and I were just talking about you!"

"Were you?" Dipper grit out sarcastically. 

"Yup," Bill chirped. "It seems to me that you and I have some scores to settle!"

Dipper scowled. "Oh, really? Because it seems to _me_ that you just want revenge for getting kicked out of Gravity Falls and the Mindscape." 

"Exactly! Glad we're on the same page!" Bill remarked. 

Dipper surreptitiously glanced at Mabel, silently conveying that he needed her to distract Bill. She nodded minutely, a small movement that you would have to be looking for to notice, and cleared her throat to draw the demon's attention back to her. "What do you want, Bill?"

As soon as the the focus was no longer on him, Dipper slipped his hand into his pants' pocket and pulled out a pen, using it to draw a rune on his hand behind his back.

"What do I want? We just established that I want revenge. Jeez, Shooting Star, get with the program!" Bill responded, rolling his eye. 

Dipper muttered the spell to activate the rune under his breath, effectively making it so that Bill's magic couldn't touch him. 

Cipher felt the change, gaze snapping to Dipper as his eye widened slightly. 

The human smirked. "That's right, you overgrown geometry equation. I've learned some shit since I was twelve."

"Oo, teach a kid some magic, and suddenly he's a badass." Bill quipped, looking annoyed. "I figured you'd have 'learned some shit' by now." He made air quotes with his fingers as he spoke. "It has been, like, what? Over eight years in your human time?"

"Eleven." Dipper and Mabel corrected simultaneously. 

Bill cast an unimpressed glance between them, rolling his eye. "Yeah, eleven years, whatever. Point is, I knew you'd have learned some anti-demon magic. Which is why I came to Shooting Star first."

Dipper glared at the demon, hatred and anger burning in his brown eyes. "Let her go, Cipher."

Bill's laughter was just as distorted and high-pitched as his voice, sounding as though it came from multiple mouths and yet had no distinct origin. "Try anything, and I'll replace all of her internal organs with mutant leeches!"

Dipper narrowed his eyes. "You won't." 

"Oh, I think we both know very well that I will!" The demon returned gleefully. 

A small smile slyly tugged at the edges of Dipper's lips. "No," he declared, reaching into his pocket once again. "You won't." He pulled out a metal cylinder and pressed a button on it's side. The cylinder began to reconfigure itself, emitting soft, mechanical whirring noises as it changed into an object resembling a futuristic pistol which Dipper aimed at Bill. 

Bill tensed, his slitted pupil contracting as he stared at the gun. "Is that-"

"An improved version of Ford's Quantum Destabilizer?" Dipper finished for him. "That's exactly what it is."

Bill's eye turned red, and blue flames flickered into existence around the weapon, not touching it, though they obviously tried to. 

"Don't bother." Dipper smirked, feeling smug. He turned the gun and gestured toward the runes etched into its side. "It won't work."

The entire room darkened as Bill's body turned scarlet, his sclera turned black, and his hat, bow-tie, arms, legs, and pupil turned white. His pupil thinned and elongated in livid hostility. Before Bill could do anything, Dipper pointed the weapon back at him, shifting his stance to distribute his weight evenly. 

Bill stopped and closed his eye, doing whatever the equivalent of taking a deep breath was for a floating triangle. He gradually changed back to yellow, and the light returned to the room at the same pace. He scoffed and waved a hand, releasing Mabel from his magic. She fell to the floor with a thump and an exclamation of pain. "Whatever. Take your sister, kid. I don't even care."

Dipper immediately rushed over to Mabel, helping her up and checking her for injuries; she allowed his fussing as she was too shellshocked to deny it, and the comfort definitely didn't hurt. 

Bill watched them with obvious contempt, rolling his singular slitted eye in disgust. "Ugh. You humans and your attachments. It's so dumb. Why would you put someone else's well-being over your own?" 

Dipper huffed indignantly. "I bet you couldn't even go a year as a human without getting attached to someone," he retaliated, scowling up at the floating demon. Mabel shot him a concerned look of confusion, but he returned her gaze confidently, silently letting her know that he knew what he was doing. She frowned uncertainly but nodded. 

Bill flashed red in anger and grew until he towered above the twins. "Please! I could effortlessly go for a literal eternity without getting attached to one of you dumb fleshbags!" He exclaimed, odd black fists clenched. 

"Prove it!" Dipper challenged. 

The air in the room became heavy as they all realized the implications of that statement. 

"Are you offering a deal?"


	2. Deals and Mabel the Shining Voice of Reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another set-up-type chapter. No real action besides the deal getting made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somehow managed to pull this chapter out of my ass for u nerds

"Are you offering a deal?" Bill asked suspiciously. 

With a bit of hesitance, Dipper nodded. "I am. You have to make it as a human for a year without forming any attachments... And that does _not_ mean you can just kill everyone. If you kill or harm anyone or let anyone outside of my family know that you are a demon, the deal is off, and you have to give up your physical form. Also, while you are human, you can stay with us, but as long as you do, you have to work in the Shack."

The dream demon looked thoughtful and slowly began shrinking back down to his regular size. "What's in it for me?"

Dipper glanced at Mabel, who was worriedly looking between him and Bill. "You get to keep your physical form." He replied, returning his gaze to the yellow triangle. 

Interest flickered through Bill's eye. "Hmm... It's tempting."

Dipper chewed his lip in thought. After a moment, he decided he needed to clarify something else. "You'll be able to use your magic, but only if you stay out of the Mindscape, and stay within a hundred feet of a living human at all times."

Bill narrowed his eye in disapproval. "No way, kid. That is unacceptable."

Dipper sighed and tried to compromise. "What if I let you into the Mindscape as long as you're asleep?"

Bill seemed to consider the offer. "... Fine," he finally conceded. Azure flames burst from his small, noodley hand as he lifted it. "Deal?"

Dipper stared at the obsidian appendage, gathering his courage. Then, taking a deep breath, he handed Mabel the Quantum Destabilizer and removed the rune from his hand. Locking eyes with Bill, he shook his hand. "Deal."

The faintly familiar sensation of heat-less flames crawling up his arm made Dipper clench his jaw as he held back a shiver; it felt like sticking his hand in a localized wind current of the exact room temperature, and yet it seemed to pull at something within his core – to inscribe something into his very soul. Nostalgia reared its head in the background of Dipper's mind, whispering bitter, anxious recollections of his past dealings with the demon, and honeyed memories of his first summer in the small town of Gravity Falls.

Bill glowed brightly as the deal was sealed, and the flames extinguished. "Alright, kid! In order to make myself a fancy fleshsuit, I need you to do something for me!" 

Warning bells went off in Dipper's mind, but there was nothing he could do about it. Suspiciously, he inquired, "Like what...?"

"Well, _first_ , I need you to draw this," he snapped his fingers, and a paper appeared on Dipper's face, "On... Oh, any ol' flat surface'll work!"

Dipper pealed the paper off of his face, slightly annoyed. On the sheet was a circle covered in runes, intricate symbols, and various ancient languages. 

"Then you've gotta make a blood sacrifice!"

Dipper's eyes immediately snapped to Bill. "A what," he deadpanned.

"Not a big one," Bill assured. "Just a few drops or so should do the trick! It's gotta be your blood, though."

"What?! Why-," cutting himself off, Dipper sighed tiredly. "Whatever. You've gotta heal me afterward, though."

"I'm not obligated to do anything!" Bill replied happily. 

"Figures," Dipper muttered as he rolled his eyes. "I'm assuming you have to be there or something?"

Bill floated over and rapped his small fist on the side of Dipper's head three times. "So, that lump of gray matter in there does work! Wow! Color me surprised!" 

The irritation rolling off of Dipper was almost palpable. He rubbed his face and recalled, "There's a clearing in the forest about half a mile south of the Shack. That would work, right?"

"Sure!" 

"Great," Dipper replied dryly. "Can I draw it with a stick, or do I have to use paint?"

Bill raised his arms in his rendition of a shrug. "Anything should work, as long as you draw it right."

Dipper nodded. "I'll do it tomorrow – otherwise we'll end up in the forest at night, and I'd rather not take any more risks than necessary."

"What?" Bill put a hand to his bow tie, as though affronted. "Do you not _trust_ me?"

"No," Dipper answered immediately. 

Color began to fade back into the world around them, and the last sound the twins heard before the grayness left was Bill's echoing laughter, leaving behind a creeping feeling of unease. 

Silence rang throughout the room until Mabel shattered it. "Sooo..." she trailed off uncertainly. 

Dipper jumped; he _might_ have forgotten she was there. Laughing awkwardly, he rubbed the back of his neck and avoided meeting her eyes. 

"You do have a reason for giving the psychopathic chaos demon another physical form, right?" Mabel ventured hopefully. 

"Yes," her twin replied with confidence. 

"And that reason is..." She needled. 

"I'm counting on the fact that the human brain is fueled by chemicals. I have no clue how demons' emotions work, but I'm hoping that putting Bill in a human body – and more specifically, a human _brain_ – of his own will subject him to the natural instincts and range of emotion that an average human has."

"Could you, oh, I dunno..." Mabel waved her hand as though trying to remember something, "Speak English, maybe? You keep forgetting I don't speak Nerd."

Dipper snorted. "I'm hoping that putting him in his own human body will make him feel emotions like a human."

"Oh," Mabel gave him a contemplative look, "But what if... I mean, there are people that don't... Maybe he just has..."

"A mental disorder?" Dipper supplied. "No. I don't think so, at least. I vaguely recall him saying something about demons not feeling human emotions. Maybe it was Ford that told me that?" He hummed thoughtfully. "Either way, the Stans and I had a conversation a few years back – you were out on a date with Pacifica, and we ended up getting kinda drunk so I forgot to tell you – about what we would do in the event that Bill ever came back. All three of us had different ideas, of course. Stan just wanted to kill him; Ford wanted to capture him and torture the secrets of the multiverse out of him; and then my idea was pretty much what I just did. The Stans didn't like my idea all that much."

Mabel snorted. "I'm not surprised."

With a grin, Dipper went on, "But I'd come up with my Humanity Theory prior to our debate. It was actually what brought up the whole conversation. We weren't talking about it without you on purpose, I swear," He assured his sister. "I also kinda want to see Bill struggle with being a human, and maybe see him realize that pain isn't all he cracks it up to be."

Mabel giggled a bit at that. "That would be pretty funny..." Dipper smiled proudly. "But then we'll also have to put up with his constant whining."

"He'll deserve what he gets and more, for all he's done," Dipper argued. 

"Yeah, but we'll still have to deal with it," she reasoned, "And have you even told Soos and Melody that you were planning on inviting a crazy demon that caused a mini-apocalypse to work in their shop and live in the new-ish building next to their house?"

Dipper deflated a bit and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, no, but-"

Mabel shook her head. "I know you meant well, bro, but I don't think you totally thought this through."

Dipper frowned, feeling somewhat like a scolded puppy. 

"And something else," Mabel began. 

Dipper glanced up at her, waiting for her to continue. 

"Did you _mean_ to let Bill keep his physical form whether or not he won the bet?"

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is hella long which is highly unusual for me. Don't expect regular updates or chapter lengths because I'm trash. Also, to anyone also reading Finding Mabel, this is partly why I haven't updated in so long, for the other reason see the previous sentence.


End file.
